I am new to woodworking. I'm learning as I go along, and I'm documenting as I learn, in the hope of being helpful to other novices. On the range from slap-dash to deliberate, my method is definitely on the deliberate side. If you have enough experience to be confident in using techniques that are more time-efficient, go for it. The techniques I'm using are those I thought least likely to go wrong, not those that would produce a product in the shortest time or at the lowest cost. You'll notice that I made a number of mistakes, spent considerable time on work I later determined to be unnecessary, and in a number of cases I used different techniques at the end than I did at the beginning. These are all the result of learning. I thought it would be better to demonstrate how I made errors, and how I corrected them, than to provide a set of instructions that presented the false impression that everything went together perfectly.
Cut the 6-1/2-in. x 3-in. lid from the leftover board, and slice the remaining piece into 1/4-in.-thick pieces for the sides and end of the box. Glue them around the plywood floor. Cut a rabbet on three sides of the lid so it fits snugly on the box and drill a 5/8-in. hole for a finger pull. Then just add a finish and you’ve got a beautiful, useful gift. If you don’t have time to make a gift this year, consider offering to do something for the person. You could offer to sharpen their knives! Here’s how.

With my second attempt at edge guides, I made the other rough-cut. On this, the edge guide worked fine, but the end of the cuts revealed that the saw blade wasn't quite square. So I adjusted the blade, clamped all four legs together, and made what would be the first final cut, if it came out clean enough. It didn't. I'd let the saw drift a bit away from the guide edge. So I adjusted the saw, moving the guide back half an inch, and tried again. the rough-cut parts were a couple of inches longer than they needed to be, so I had room to work with,. It's only the final cut at the other end that you only have one chance at.

There are two books that I would consider highly influential in my personal woodworking path. Darrell Peart’s “Greene & Greene: Design Elements for the Workshop” (Linden) and “Adventures in Wood Finishing” by George Frank (Taunton). Peart’s book kicked off my fascination with all things Greene & Greene. Peart does a fantastic job of covering history as well as practical techniques.
Even in today’s world of electric machinery, when most people were asked to name a woodworking tool, planes and scrapers would probably be at the top of the list. They are as useful now as they were years ago but, because of their electrified cousins, they are often overlooked in favour of a faster option. In this compre­hensive book, John English explains what each type of plane is for, how to set it up for optimal performance and how to use it. The text is thorough and the photos are informative. All in all, this is a good read for a beginning or intermediate woodworker. Or a woodworker who simply never gave hand planes and scrapers a fair shake.
Skirting tradi­tional woodworking – sometimes seem­ingly allergic to it – this book shows you things you didn’t think were possible with wood, and many things you wish you had thought of first. The variety of the finished pieces is won­derful and makes for a nice read. Including 89 artists in total, each brief section con­tains background information, inspirational thoughts and technical details on how each artist completes their work. Wood Art Today 2 covers furniture, turnings, boxes, sculptures and more. One of the things I like most about it is you can open it up to any page and start learning about a specific artist and the work they do. This one is a lot of fun.
A better solution would have been to route a rabbet into the side, so that the added strip always had thickness. The way I did it means that the strip I glued in is very narrow, and hence very weak, at a certain point. In this case, that's not a problem, because it's going to be sitting under the countertop layer. I also noticed that because I had only clamped the strip down, and not into the edge, there was a noticeable glue gap where the strip butted up against the MDF. Again, in this application it isn't visible. But if I was doing something like this on the top of a table, I'd make sure to cut a clean rabbet, and to clamp both down and in.
Penland School of Crafts has been operating in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains for over 75 years. This book details how ten instructors – all experts in their fields – make some of the furniture for which they are best known. Each instructor is vastly different from the next, and the tips they detail are highly innova­tive yet understandable and useful to the amateur woodworker. The director of the school, Jean McLaughlin, says the aim of the book is threefold. “To give the reader insight into the creative and technical processes of leading woodworkers, to provide detailed, intermediate-level technical information, and to showcase a range of approaches to the material.” The book excels on all three levels. Even when Istrongly disliked the style of furniture being discussed, revelled in the unique approach the maker took to break new ground to complete the finished piece. If you would like to see how one-of-a-kind pieces of studio furniture are made, and start to add some new techniques to your arsenal, either take a trip to North Carolina or pick up this book.

2. Bill Hylton's Power-Tool Joinery by Bill Hylton. From the editors of Popular Woodworking magazine, this is a go-to for setting up power tools for making joinery. Organized by joint type - rabbets, half-laps, dovetails, etc - it provides detailed instructions show you how to make each joint with every tool possible. I especially like the jigs and fixtures details that show you there's definitely more than one way to skin that cat.
Pyrography Workbook: A Complete Guide to the Art of Woodburning. It’s amazing what you can create with woodburning. You can make art that stands on its own, or use woodburning to personalize your crafts. In her book, Sue Walters talks about equipment, techniques, and safety. She also takes you step-by-step through 3 different projects for the beginner, intermediate, and the advanced woodburner. When I bought my first wood burner, I automatically purchased this book as well.
Grouping George Nakashima’s The Soul of a Tree and Jim Krenov’s Worker in Wood with Nick Offerman’s Good Clean Fun might seem sacrilegious, but we like how the trio’s perspectives encompass the diverse spirit of woodworking. The older books combine photos of exceptional work with serious reflections on the nature of craftsmanship. Nick is equally passionate about wood and woodworking, but he’s more willing to admit that he’s enjoying himself–a good example for all of us to follow.
As a teacher I find Ernest Joyce’s “The Technique of Furniture Making” (Batson) invaluable, ’tho it is as far away from an enjoyable read as possible. Similarly Bob Wearing’s “Essential Woodworker” (Lost Art Press). Bob is one of the only people who ever gave insight into traditional English technique. I believe the lack of similar books is due to the apprenticeship tradition of teaching, where nothing was ever written down.
When this book showed up at my studio I was very sceptical. Yet another “book of every­thing”? But after spending only five minutes skimming through it, I learned about a couple of storage ideas my shop needed, some cool new jigs that would come in handy and a few tricks to make my time in the shop more enjoyable and productive. There will be hundreds of ideas in here you will have no interest in whatsoever, but that’s all right … there are over 650 ideas in total, so some are sure to tickle your fancy.
I’m building my second bench. I built the first years ago with wood from old machinery pallets – mostly oak and maple. Mortised the legs into the base, and pegged ’em with 1″ dowels. Of course, the legs warped a bit, but that made everything tighter and stronger. The top is 2″ thick Ash, one board cut in half and joined side to side. Wrapped a maple apron around the top, and I think I screwed the top from underneath to the leg braces. Solid. Over time, built a cabinet under for 3 drawers and a small cabinet door. Works for me.

For the most part, furniture restorers/refinishers/conservators in the United States lack the necessary hand-tool skills to do proper wood repairs. But avid readers of Popular Woodworking Magazine do possess the skills. Like me in the 1970s, you just need instruction on how to go about it. These books provide this. They greatly influenced the techniques I use in my shop, and many are shown in the “Repairing Furniture” video/DVD I made for Taunton.

Another aspect that might irk some buyers is the fact that the capacity of this bench is less than great outside of weight. The top’s surface area is a bit on the smaller end, though its length is more in line with larger models. The width though is less than two feet which can limit some projects. Similarly, the vice capacity is the second smallest on our list at 4 ½”, though this too can be modded with optional additions.